


Dancing Under the Turtle Moon

by SireniaWolf



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Fluff and Angst, Light Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-04
Updated: 2016-11-04
Packaged: 2018-08-29 00:43:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,376
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8469244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SireniaWolf/pseuds/SireniaWolf
Summary: Keith was just you're average korean teen living in Korea. Doing part-time jobs, hating school, and taking care of his mother. But that all changes when a particular boy moves next door. A very annoying boy sure, but a dancing who'll change his life forever.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Before we start, I just want to say that anything in this story that you say 'stereotypes' or is 'being racist to Asians' is probably, not wrong, but I'm Korean, and honestly how I depict Keith's mother is honestly how all my relatives are. But if more than 3 people describe this as racist to Asians then I'll completely shut down this story. Later in the story, there is slight racism to other countries, but it's just Lance being an idiot. Also, speaking of him, Lance will be Cuban, but I'm not going to put a lot into the culture because I'm not sure what the customs are like. I promise to research later. Also, probably a few of you think this is just like Dirty Laundry, but the only thing I'm borrowing from that story is Korean Keith, and I credit them with the idea. Please be respectful and enjoy. Also, although some phrases are in Korean, Keith is going to be speaking a lot of English because he needs to practice his studies in oral English. Edit: Translations later in glossary.

_"Ping Ping."_

Once again, there was the noise the summoned Keith out of bed and out the door. But today, he was exhausted. Extremely exhausted. Like if he was forced to open his eyes right now, he'd break his glued-shut eyelids. He was so tired, and thinking of repeating everything another day all over again didn't exactly help him find the energy to get up. He tried to force himself, but nothing could make him wake. Even when he could feel the early chill of the morning on his face, the stiff pain of his worn-out back, and the nagging pull that said he needed to get up, he still couldn't find anything to motivate him. Nothing, except for the soft, gentle snoring that could only come from an elder. Instinct kicked in, and Keith sighed, somehow managing to awaken from his short-lived and already well missed slumber. Stretching and yawning, he tried his best to ignore his sore body, and walked towards the door. From experience, he was already fully dressed to save time, and quickly got his backpack and keys. He tip-toed towards the kitchen/living room, past the door of his sleeping mother, and noticed some _ttok_ on the table with a note it. Grabbing it, he smiled as he read the note, which read _"Sarange hae"._  He quickly grabbed the snacks and stuffed them in his mouth. And although he wanted to cherish each piece, he couldn't, upon realizing the clock read 4:48 and he was probably going to be late to his part-time job. Stealthily he opened the door to outside, but not before quietly whispering _'joe uln achim'_ to his sleeping mom. Slowly closing the door, he could finally, he could be as loud as he could, and ran to his parked moped with his helmet already to go. Quickly stabbing his keys in the ignition hole and shoving his helmet on his head, and he was veering off into the already busy streets of Seoul, his home town. Dawn hadn't even peaked the horizon yet, and it was still slightly chilly with a dark, cloudy sky. Veering off into the traffic, he noticed a moving truck heading to around his neighborhood.

 _"Another neighbor?"_ Keith thought questioningly. _"Probably another college student who can't afford the dorms around here."_ He quickly forgot about it as a blue Coupe came whizzing by, barely grazing him.

"Watch it, jackass!" Keith yelled as the light started to turn green. He grumbled, and revved his motorcycle with annoyance. In Korea, there were always going to be small 'accidents' here and there, but even with the small traffic jams, Keith made it to his job that should've been 25 minutes away. At least, normally, but Keith made certain 'short cuts.'

Finally, Keith made it to his job. The Altean Bakery, full of life and energy even at 5:00 am in the morning. He pulled off his helmet, and walked into the small building.

"Kogane, you're finally here." A bright orange mustache greeted him as a heavy lift of bread was given to him. "Give me a hand with these, would you?"

"Aye sir, Coran." Keith groaned as the heavy load of hot pastries was shoved into his arms. "First few minutes of work and I half to deal with stock? C'mon chef I thought you were better with this."

" _Assistant_ chef." Coran whispered. "Don't let Allura hear you say that."

Keith tried to nod his head, and made his way to the front, where a young Japanese male was fitting everything onto the counter.

"Heavy load there Keith?" Shiro commented as Keith slowly tried to put the boxes on the floor, while not crushing his own fingers.

"Funny how you notice that but don't come help me." Keith muttered.

"Hey, doctor said to take it easy." Shiro waved his prosthetic arm. "I'm testing a new model, and they don't want me to bang it up quite so soon yet."

"Yet here you are, working on placing out bread even though I gave you a paid leave." Allura scolded, walking to the counter. "Honestly, the doctor's shouldn't have given you a new model if you're not going to take care of you health, you idiot."

Shiro sheepishly scratched the back of head. "But a paid leave? Allura, there was no way I was going to accept that and you know it." Shiro left out the words that voicelessly echoed the room, _"Because you couldn't have possibly afforded that."_

Allura crossed her arms and gave a small _'hmph',_ but she dropped the touchy subject. "Anyway, Keith." She looked at him with eyes that tried to show no emotion, but held a crack of concern. "Are you sure that you're not over-working yourself? Waking up so early for this job, and then having to go to school. With so much homework too."

"I'm fine!" Keith snorted. "Honestly, you think that I can't handle this but this guy can?" Keith said disbelievingly as he pointed to Shiro.

"I'm in college, which means quite more freedom for part-time jobs." Shiro countered. "Besides, you've got your mom too..."

Allura silently mouthed 'cut it' to Shiro behind Keith's back.

"What, my _omma?_ (Mom in Korean) She can handle herself! She's a lot more stronger then you give her up to be, trust me." Keith said, the offended tone not that well disguised in his voice. He started to organize the bread onto the shelves, not looking at either of the two staring at him.

_"What was that for?"_

_"I didn't know it was a touchy subject!"_ Allura and Shiro silently argued as Keith worked, but stopped immediately as Keith turned around.

"I'd better go help Coran." He mumbled, head down as he stiffly walked to the kitchen.

"Good job, Keith!" Shiro tried to encourage, but Keith ignored him as he turned the corner.

"You know, young ones like you need to know all kinds of cultural cooking!" Coran said as he mixed a bowl of batter. "I remember back in England, we'd have steak and kidney pies, steak and kidney pudding," His eyes lit up. "And, of course, mother's personal best, toad in the hole!" His eyes spoke of good memories. "Those were the good old days."

"Mhmm." Keith said, not paying that much attention as he quickly popped some buns into the oven.

"But when we and Allura went to Korea, golly, there were sweet riches waiting for us! Red-bean paste buns, mammoth bread, _hotteok_ (honey pancakes), and of course tteok!"

Keith burned himself when he heard Coran say that last one. "Tch!" Keith bit his tongue against the quick, burning sensation.

"You okay there Keith?" Coran quickly got a wet towel to soothe the burn. "You need to be wearing gloves! How many times have we told you this!"

"It's fine." Keith roughly brushed Coran aside, more embarrassed then hurt. He walked out the exit as Coran muttered to himself, "I swear, youngin's these days."

Keith looked at the clock inside the employer's room as he changed out of his employee's outfit, and realized it was almost 5:45. He quickly changed into his school uniform and slapped his helmet back on.

"I'm going to school!" Keith yelled back as several of the employees grunted back in acknowledgement.

"Wait, Keith!" Allura ran to him, carrying a bag of some sweets. "Take this! You need the energy, you know."

Keith just looked at her strangely. "Uhmmm Allura, we're in the men's changing room..."

Allura's eyes quickly widened, but she shook her head while blushing. "It's fine, no one else is here, just take this." She shoved the bag of sweet-smelling pastries into his hand. "Promise me you won't strain yourself."

"You heard her Keith!" Shiro yelled from the kitchen. "You'd better take care of yourself!"

"You too, _oppa_. (dad)" Keith yelled back and rolled his eyes. "Why are you guys like my second parents."

"Who, me and... Shiro?!" Allura exclaimed. She waved her hand. "You have such a weird imagination! Get out, out!" She shooed Keith out the exit.

"Bye guys!" Keith waved to the bakery before starting his engine and roaring out of the back alley. And then he was gone. Gone from the soothing, sweet smells of fresh bread in the early morning, gone from the friendly chatter that always roamed the hallways, gone from the comforting, yellow lights that always reminded him of a star. Gone from the Altean Bakery, Korean and England fusion restaurant.

He closed his eyes slightly as he felt the slight wind go through, then concentrated on getting to school. He always this part of day, because this when other kids were also starting to head towards school, and if 4:30 am was busy, 5:30 was hell. Yells of _"move out of the damn way'_ and _'why are you so damn slow?'_ flooded the streets. Keith had learned to masterfully avoid cars, swerving there and then, and nicking a few cars here and there because the drivers were jerks.

As he was waiting for a red light, he looked at the car a couple lanes besides him, and realized it was the car that almost killed him earlier.

 _"What the heck."_ Keith thought. _"Geez, this guy's out for me."_ But moments later, the traffic caused them to pull apart, and soon Keith was at the school. The flat,  huge school. A one-level floor school because of the experience of many kids commuting suicide off high ones. A terrible, dark school that was out to wash out the students' personalities. The one that he dreaded, but only went to because his _omma_ wanted him to, and he wasn't just about to disappoint her like dad did. So, he walked his moped to a safe parking place, looked in his rear view mirror for a stray hair, and walked into the white-washed building.

There wasn't a lot of bullying in the school actually. Kids were too stressed out and tired to actually attempt that. There were verbal words here and there, but nothing usually big. The school prided itself that making half-dead kids, exhausted kids decreased bullying. That instead of actually hiring a few counselors here and there for the bullied, suicidal kids, the the school board would become a bully and would make everyone suicidal. Even the teachers, who always had long faces whenever they looked at the kids, who were so tired and rushed they wouldn't even have time to explain things. You could feel the depressed aura filling the entire school. But, once again, there wasn't a lot of bullying in the school. But the few students who did, whoever, only managed to stay in by stealing answers from whoever they could. Because according to the educational board, there were **no** bullies, and never would be. But there was a prime example right now, right in front of him. A couple punks were ganging up on a poor guy, who was nervously looking up at his 'peers.'

Keith couldn't hear much, but it was some whispers of 'foreigner' and 'outsider fee.' And although he  shook his head, and knew it was wrong that he wasn't helping, but didn't do anything to help. Because he knew what would happen if he actually said interfered. All of them would be sent home, no question. As Keith walked by, he expected the boy to say, "Help me!" or "Please, stop!" but instead, something surprised him. The guy was laughing, genuinely laughing. He could hear him even beyond the wall of his oppressors, and this guys sounded half insane and half happy.

As far as Keith could, he eavesdropped by pretending to check a locker close to the group. The guy being bullied snickered. "You're right, I am a 'foreigner', lol I'm French, _bonjour_ dweebs." He winked. "I'm sorry, could you not understand that?" He spoke in a fake German accent, and Keith knew this guys was being really racist, but he couldn't help the small giggle from from his mouth. "Oh, and you want some 'outsider fee' from me? How's this?" The guys stuck his butt out to them and farted while sticking his tongue out, and Keith had to try with all his might not to burst out laughing. " _Konichiwa_ weirdos." His famous last words were before Keith could hear the punch to his jaw. "Worth it." Was the last grunt as the group closed in on him, followed by several sounds of kicks against a body. 

Finally, the bell rang, and the group left, muttering about how'd they seem him again soon. Keith waited a couple of minutes pretending to look at his imaginary watch, and then turned to the new student, who had quite the marks on him.

"You okay?" Keith reached out his hand to the stranger. 

"Ya, thanks for the support earlier. Really helpful." The guy's tone was sarcastic, but Keith could see a small smile peaking on his face. 

"Sorry about that, but it was better than all of us getting suspended." Keith replied and the stranger just shrugged. "I'm Keith, who're you?" He asked.

The guy just smiled. "I'm jackass."

"What?" Keith asked questioningly. 

"Try to recall, earlier, when you were driving your cool moped down the chilly streets of Seoul, innocently vrooming about, when a snazzy blue car whizzed by you and gave you a near-death experience." He flashed a grin. "It was _moi."_

"It was you?" Keith dropped his out-stretched hand.

"Yep." He winked. "I hope you liked the driver though, because I hear he's pretty hot." He got up and shook himself off, trying to dust away shoe-print marks on his clothes. "Well, my true name is Lance, but you can call me sexy." He grabbed Keith's hand and shook it violently. "Nice to meet you and nice mullet." He let go and turned to walk down the hallway. "I'll see you later, two. Remember I'm thing one." He winked as he turned the corner.

"What the fuck?" Keith looked at the way he had gone while he unconsciously touched his hair. "Mullet, I don't have a mullet." He muttered to himself as he reminded himself to get a haircut.

Suddenly Lance came speeding down the hallway again. "Wrong way, hasta la vista bitch." He called back as he sprinted away to his classroom.

Keith just sighed as he gave himself yet another mental reminder, this time not to help weirdos. He headed to his class that he was extremely late for, and already dreaded the stack of packets waiting for him.

Keith found later, to his great disappointment, that he had several classes with Lance. He had 4th period, math, where when the teacher asked why Lance was looking 'dilapidated', he responded with, "Why don't you ask your mom, by the way, tell her I'd do it again no matter how angry she is." which got him a detention and a pass to the office. He also had 6th period with him, history, where they were studying on the history of Latino countries, which Lance was surprisingly well-educated about.

"Who led the relaunched revolution in 1895?" Asked the teacher, peering around the room from his horn-rimmed glasses, looking for his next victim. 

Only one eager hand waved excitedly, and not surprisingly, it was Lance.

The teacher sighed and nodded to Lance, who looked like a 1st grader on their first day of school. "José Martí!" He crowed proudly.

"Can someone tell us what Lance forgot?" The teacher looked around the room once more, and when no one volunteered the teacher sighed and answered himself.  "Máximo Gómez y Báez also led in the relaunched revolution."

Keith didn't sit that close to Lance, maybe a few seats over, but he swear he could've heard Lance mutter " _General_  Máximo Gómez y Báez. And you're pronouncing the accents wrong." 

Then lunch came, and Keith sat where he always sat, under the tree in the middle of the courtyard, glaring at anybody he went by. Normally, his branding stare usually made anyone tell they were pretty unwelcomed, but unfortunately Lance was not normal.

"Wassup thing 2?" Lance asked with an oblivious attitude to Keith's demeaning gaze at him.

"Leave me alone." Keith said before biting into a piece of rice cake from the bag the Allura had given him earlier. 

"Oooh, those look good, can I have one?" Lance asked before grabbing one anyway. He bit into the sweet, chewy dessert too. "Mmm, this is good! What is it?" 

"So you just took my food and ate it, and you don't even know what you ate?" Keith looked at him disbelievingly.

"Well since you ate it, I figured it wasn't poisoned or anything." He finished it and licked his fingers. "So what is it?" He said with a full mouth.

Keith just sighed. "It's called a rice cake."

Lance just looked at him disbelief. "This is rice? How?! I thought rice cakes were those sticky, rice things that look rice krispies except Asians ate it on new year's or something.

Keith just looked at him. "Exactly how uninformed are you about this country?"

"Well considering I just got to this place last night, not a lot..." Lance looked thoughtfully at the clouds.

"Last night?! And you got to school anyway?" Keith couldn't believe this kid. He just kept getting more and more surprised. 

"Education is key, Lance, especially in this country." Lance spoke in a heavy accented voice. "Words from my uncle, who lives a a couple hours away from here." Lance said.

"So wait, you just got here last night, in a foreign country, and you live alone while not even knowing how to speak the native language and went to school?" Keith asked.

"Well, I guess?" Lance shrugged. "Its sounds a lot worse when you say it like that."

"it's called 'actual reason.'" Keith muttered, and they both chuckled at that.

"Where do you live? Maybe I could help you with moving." Keith couldn't understand the words coming out of his mouth. 

"Oh, I live-" But was cut short from the loud bell that rang across the entire school. 

"I'll tell you later!" Lance said as he raced to his next class. "I need to head to my class early in case I get lost." Well, Lance found his class. And so did Keith. Because they had the same PE class together. 

"Oh, well, hi again." Lance said to Keith in the locker room. 

"Hey." Keith said. "Which coach do you have?"

"Oh I don't have one, I take dance." Lance grinned.

"What?" Keith asked, doubt in his voice. "Oh, you're joking with me again, right?" Keith laughed. "You actually got me for a second..." 

Keith trailed off when he saw Lance's still smiling face. "Nope, sorry not a joke. I take dance." 

Dance was open to both genders, but as stereotypes would have it, there wasn't a single guy in the dance classes. 

Regular PE classes took place on the field, a rubber platform with some chalk to make a track for runners. Dancing classes took place on a large wooden platform that was out of the way for the other classes. Dance class also usually played the most cringiest k pop songs ever made. Some of them weren't bad, but when forced to listen to the same pop songs over and over again while running a lap, Keith had learned to hate it with his soul.

"Go to the starting line, and when I say go, run 2 laps." The coach commanded. His sunglasses rested on his fat face. "Ready? GO!" And the entire class was beating the ground with their feet, trying to outrun each other and make their grade. 

Usually Keith wasn't bad in this class. Usually got second or fourth, once he got first. But today, they were playing the most dreaded song for Keith. Chewing gum.

 _"Ch-ch-chewing gum. Ch-ch-chewing gum."_ Normally Keith could've lasted this song. So could've the rest of the class. But what made the song unbearable was that it was extremely catchy, and pretty soon the entire class was singing unconsciously under their breath,  _"Ch-ch-chewing gum. Ch-ch-chewing gum."_ Even Keith was doing it, and it was wasting his breath. What didn't help either, was that the entire class had found out that Lance took dance, and now and then someone turned their head to the side to see what it was like when a guy danced. Most of the time the dance class students were doing warm-ups and stretching, but when they did, it was really all the new fads in Korea. Right now, they were practicing a routine to  _Chewing Gum_ , to Keith's regret, but they weren't that bad. The dancers were amazing, but then you spotted Lance. And Lance was  _wow._

 _"Ch-chewing fum. Ch-ewing_ _gum."_ Lance clapped his hands, spun, put his hands to his hips, and did that slow torso circle that looked cool. In all, Lance looked pretty good, but what really stood out was his obvious understanding of the rhythm. Lance synchronized himself with every beat, with a kick, a clap, a whatever-those-moves-were called. But it was stunning to watch him. Keith got so distracted by him, that he accidentally tripped over someone's leg, and fell face flat on the ground. That earned him a trip to the nurse's office. And who got to walk him to the office? Of course, Lance, because the dance teacher proclaimed him _'an advanced level that does not require practice.'_ So Keith had to walk to the office, with an terrible headache, and of course his injury.

"What did you get so distracted with that you tripped and fell?" Lance smirked. "Maybe my eye-catching moves?"

"You wish." Keith smiled back with a sarcastic grin. "The only way I got side-tracked by you was by how awful you were."

"So you admit you were watching me then." Lance smiled.

Keith looked at him with a flustered gaze disguised by a glare. "You wish wash-out."

"I guess I am a wash-out..." Lance looked distracted for a moment, and Keith wondered if he had genuinely hurt him.

"...But then I guess you're a white-out!" He laughed at his own joke and poked Keith. "Get it pasty?"

"Shut up charcoal." Keith replied.

Lance pretended to look offended. "I prefer chocolate, thank you very much. Look at this tone." Lance flipped his hair. "You can't get this gorgeous skin just anywhere."

"Narcissist." Keith mumbled.

"Tsundere." Lance coughed.

"Tsundere? Is that your best comeback? Are you a freakin' weeb? Why didn't you just go to Japan then, or did you just get the countries mixed up? " Keith asked.

"I didn't say anything. And anyway..." Lance mumbled and looked to the side. "It's easy to get an island and a peninsula mixed up..."

They both cracked up at that, which didn't make Keith's headache any better. They finally reached the office, and the nurse barely lifted her closed eyes at the new arrivals.  "What do you need?" She grumbled.

"Uhh, this guy tripped and has a bump twice the size of his head, which, now that I think about it, isn't very large..." Lance trailed off and Keith tried to control himself, but couldn't resist smacking on the back of his head.

"Scratch that, now we've got two head injuries." Lance turned his head around and stuck out his tongue at Keith.

"I just need some ice." Keith sighed.

"There's some in the freezer." The nurse replied before drifting back to her nap.

"Geez, they really don't care do they?" Lance asked as they headed to the back room. "Hey, there's not a freezer here."

"Nope." Keith replied as he scoured the shelves, looking for what he needed. "Where is it... Aha!" Keith grabbed a bottle of Tylenol. "Mission accomplished."

"Hey, I thought the school isn't allowed to give out medication..." Lance said.

"They aren't." Keith shrugged as he fished two pills out and swallowed them both. "Officially. But if there's some way to improve _'student performance' ,_ school's look the other way sometimes."

"Geez, that's awful..." For once, Lance looked like he had nothing snappy to say. "You shouldn't take so much, that's not too good for your liver."

 _"I already knew that a long time ago..."_ Keith laughed in his head. "It's fine, I don't take this very often. But right now my head hurts like hell."

"Did you really hit your head that hard?" Lance cocked his head.

 _"Stop questioning things."_ Keith thought. "Haha, I did, really. You're dance moves were really that bad."

Lance cracked a grin at that. "Alright then, I guess I should start going get some rest."

"Alright, thanks for making my headache worse with your jokes." Keith smiled.

"No problemo!" Lance replied as he headed out the door.

Keith waited until he was completely gone, and then waited a couple seconds. He also looked at the nurse, who was still snoring. Then quickly, Keith snatched some medicine off the shelves.

 _"It's for mom, it's for mom. She needs some."_ Keith reassured himself, although he already knew where half of it was going. He yawned, and decided to take a quick nap before heading out again. He'd already trained himself to wake up after a certain period of time, and decided on 10 minutes. Keith headed to the small bed in the corner, and flopped onto it. Pretty soon he was deeply asleep.

"Hey Keith buddy, you up? It's been quite sometime, like school's already ended." Lance looked around the office, finally spotting him on the bed. "Oh there you are sleeping beauty! What could you be dreaming of?" Lance walked closer and saw Keith's docile face. "You're that out of it, huh? Did that medicine hit you too hard." He softly sat on the bed. "Didn't even have the energy to use the blanket?" Lance was just about ready to sleep in his position and join Keith in dream world when Keith turned onto his side, and something stuck out of his pocket.

"Oh? What is this? Are you hiding drugs or something Keith?" Lance said jokingly as he pulled the bottle out. His face turned to horror when he looked at it. "I was just joking when is it." Lance examined the container. Are

 


End file.
